


clipped conversations

by ElasticElla



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-04-01 01:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3999979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/pseuds/ElasticElla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first visit doesn’t go well: “So you joined a ragtag group of identical green warriors we defeated with a sneeze to further prove your individuality?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	clipped conversations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [asphaltcowgrrl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/asphaltcowgrrl/gifts).



The first visit doesn’t go well.

“So you joined a ragtag group of identical green warriors we defeated with a sneeze to further prove your individuality?”

The second isn’t much better. Nor is the third, or fourth, or any visit Ty Lee still counts. Azula keeps track though, tiny scratches on the wall. On Ty Lee’s thirty-fourth visit, they last three sentences.

“Why aren’t you living on Kyoshi Island?”

“A few of us stayed to protect the Fire Lord.”

Flames race up Azula’s arms, and she can’t recall what she said next. Whatever it is, it makes Ty Lee take her leave.

On the fifty-fourth visit, Azula asks how Fire Lady Mai is faring.

Ty Lee sighs and frowns. “They broke up when Zuko asked for her hand.”

Azula rolls her eyes, “He should have known a Fire Lord doesn’t ask.”

Ty Lee leaves for the day, and Azula tells herself she doesn’t care about either of the traitors. She wonders if Ozai is in a better cell than hers, can’t imagine her soft-hearted fool of a brother executing him. After all, she was still alive, even if in a deplorable condition.

Late at night- or when her bending is weakest and there is only one guard at the end of the hall- darkness comes with matching thoughts. She could escape, it would be a breeze for her lightning to cut through her cage and the Dai Li have already visited her thrice. But there is nothing waiting for her, there is no secret rebellion brewing nor any way close to power, no lover waiting for her in secret.

At least here, she has Ty Lee.

(Ty Lee’s words on Boiling Rock still echo back, sometimes in her mother’s voice and sometimes not. She hasn’t decided which is worse yet.)

“Why don’t I hate you? I should.”

“Princess,” she says, and fire races through Azula’s palms, tingling to be let out. “I don’t fear you any more.”

Azula laughs, cracked and high-pitched. “Why would you- not even the rats cower.”

“I love you.”

Azula can’t remember what she said next, but Ty Lee takes her seventy-second leave.

Ty Lee won't forget the words soon, taunting like Azula always is. 

('Of course you do, I'm weak and pitiful, just how you like your lovers.')


End file.
